Many types of conventional pitot pumps include a rotating drum that rotates around a stationary shaft and encases a pitot assembly. Fluid flows into the drum through inlets to be picked up by the pitot assembly and flowed out passages in the shaft. Commonly, the rotating drum includes several separately machined parts that are secured to each other and assembled around the pitot assembly. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,364 issued Nov. 22, 1977 to Andersen et al. There are problems with this, however. Bearing and sealing surfaces between the rotating drum and shaft upon which the drum rotates are not precisely aligned causing tolerance stack up which results in leakage and a decrease in the overall efficiency of the system. Secondly, there is the increased cost of material and labor adding to the inconvenience and difficulty in designing, machining and securing the independent pieces around the pitot assembly. Additionally, because the bearing and sealing surfaces are not precisely aligned, the rotating drum and shaft incur significant wear and tear on the surfaces as the drum does not rotate uniformly on the shaft. The wear exacerbates already existent sealing problems.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the above problems.